[Ubuntu-US-CA] Team organization and dispute resolution

[Elizabeth Krumbach]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 7:45 PM, Robert Wall <robert at rww.name> wrote:
> The other common way of dealing with problems like this is to ask
> someone outside the LoCo to come in, look at the underlying problems,
> and work with both sides to figure things out. This has come up
> occasionally in the LoCo the past, but I don't think it's ever been
> initiated.

I visit California frequently (every couple of months, I'm flying out
again tomorrow evening!) so my intentions for joining were not really
outside view and arbitration, but since joining I have ended up
talking quite a bit with the major parties involved. Given my
experience as a USTeams Mentor over the past couple years and having
arbitrated disputes within other US LoCo teams (up to and including
helping them restructure their teams) I'd be happy to help further if
you feel my expertise is valuable. There are also other mentors within
the USTeams project who can help if you want someone who is really
outside the whole discussion, but we won't jump in unless asked, so
please let me know if this is something you're interested in.

Robert, I commend your bravery for bringing this out in the open.
While I do believe arguments and discussions like this in public can
be scary and very well might put a few people off into involvement
until this is resolved, it's vital to the future of the team that this
all get out in the open and it is resolved in public. If people are
able to hang on to the team through this difficult time, and I think
most will, they might even have more respect for everyone involved
because they'll see that the team worked hard to develop and use a
mechanism for dealing with really difficult problems. A proper
resolution should make the team stronger :)

Cheers.

-- 
Elizabeth Krumbach // Lyz // pleia2
http://www.princessleia.com